Since the start of the occupation, a number of herbalists have been providing holistic health
care for the Wall Street Occupiers in a number of ways, treating basic illnesses as well as injuries
and stress-related conditions. Herbalists have been present and working at the occupation since its
beginning and we have found that roughly half of the medical care provided at Liberty Park
involves herbal treatment of some kind – and with the coming winter, we expect the need for our
services regarding colds and other illnesses to increase.
At this time, we feel that our capabilities could be hugely improved with an available budget
to provide for medicinal materials and physical infrastructure for our operations. Thus far we have
worked with donated materials and out-of-pocket expenditures, as well as our own stock of
medicines that we have brought in, but these are being depleted more quickly than they can be
renewed, and we would like to create a few specific herbal treatments for the occupation in bulk
that we have learned through experience would be broadly beneficial.
Specifically, we seek to create a more usable and complete apothecary in Liberty Park to
enable us to work more effectively, as well as the means to provide take-away medicines to those
we treat, rather than requiring them to come back to us again and again. We also seek the means to
provide jail support for those arrested in relation to the occupation, by offering stress and trauma
management medicines as well as preparations for treating handcuff and other injuries. This
involves acquiring a number of specific medicines and herbs, the materials to make certain
preparations off-site, a large number of small containers for take-away preparations, and a large,
free-standing spice rack and other furniture to better organize our preparations and provide
improved working surfaces.
We have cultivated working relationships with good sources for the bulk of these items,
taking strides to contact local producers that use ethical practices in creating and harvesting their
goods, including organic cultivation and other sustainable and positive economic practices. This
includes some well-known providers of herbal preparations, as well as local farmers in the NYC
area who have offered to work with us.
Our itemized budget outline, for the next month’s expected consumables (though likely to
last longer than that) and some more permanent items is as follows:

In addition, a weekly budget of $150 should be sufficient to keep our materials well-stocked into
the future, to replace depleted medicines, materials, and containers.
Thanks for your consideration, and we hope to do our best to keep this occupation healthy & happy.
– The Herbalists Working Group of Occupy Wall Street

Report Backs
• Max, Organization: nothing new.
• Olivia, Outreach: working on intake program, hopefully twice a day, orientation for newcomers; trying to centralize outreach to organizations, businesses, labor, universities, etc.
• Sophie, Occupiers/women/etc.: we’re working on having a consent training that we’re going to share w/ every working group. Want to find a meeting time during which we can do an hour-long training. Planning solidarity walkout against sexual violence.
• Jeanni, Financial Research & Application for OWS: nothing to report
• Bill, PR:
• Lorin, arts: doing outreach to NYC’s interfaith movement; met w/ Occupy Faith last night; they’re looking for spaces, kitchens, etc.; they want to help but are having trouble navigating our system; they want to have a faith & family tent for the winter.
• Gypsy, “we get shit done”: contact list for ; working on getting Go Phones (w for everyone in the ; now working on contact info for each working group;
• Jose, reporting for comfort: their shelter is too weak
• _____
• _____
• Jose,
o medical:
o Setting up protocols for how to deal with incidents in the park; that group has empowered itself to police the park & has asked some people to leave based on their behavior in the park.
o Small affinity group setting up intentional community w/in the park.
• Pete, Finance – 5:30-6, Friday, @ the red cube, and moving to somewhere else.
• Rick, alt currency: 12:00 meeting at Charlottes, Anya & Katie, thinker & filmmaker abt at currency;
• Chris & Megan, kitchen: kitchen is experiencing growing pains. We’re trying to branch out as an entity that feeds people but also does other projects.
• Angelo, no group: I’m working on a website called the occupyassembly.org, aimed at being an online GA. Not officially affiliated with OWS.
• Special Report: the internet proposal passed last night
• Catherine, fr. occupiers: I’m starting a social justice workshop for people in the park.

Announcement: we have major donation for office space for approximately 50-people’s working space. Organization has been tasked with organizing use of the space. We have an office manager who is also an occupier. The donor picked 11 groups that they want using the office. Send your liaison (ideally, experienced project-managers) to the Organization WG.

Bill: The Post has put on its cover a story about business near here that’s laying off a bunch of people & we’re being blamed. There’s no quote from OWS. The barricades are a serious issue for everyone in the community. That’s on the mayor. Statue is guarded 24-7 at great expense. Since the first day, the NY Post has been covering us negatively.
Daily News was fine; not much about us.
The bank story is being viewed as riding the general wave of anger by consumers & others.

Consent Training

Training will put OWS in context w/in larger culture, Viz. gender & sexual violence. Trans-friendly
Come talk to me if you have more questions afterwards.
Discussion of “rape culture”: putting responsibility on he victim.
Olivia: let’s email that out to working groups in advance, so we can discuss it.
Sophie’s contact: 802-291-3634

Lorin

There are a lot of different projects going on around safety at night & winterization. A few people working on large group tents. Can we get a status update on that?

Chris: personal experience last night w/ safety in the park. Someone accused of sexual assault came into the park; a large group of people appeared & asked him to leave.
Jose: the girl who was assaulted has decided to press charges.
Jose (hat): if you have not done survival training, please be very careful about how you discuss sexual assaults in these groups. If you are interested in getting involved in safety & security, please get involved in Community Watch. There’s a training today @ 3pm, here at 60 Wall. To clarify: no one is kicking people out based on rumors; we have trained professionals dealing with this.

Clarifying question: how do you get in touch with peace council.
Jose: don’t call a mic check; call for security via someone with a walky-talky

Shen: Org. is trying to help keep track of all these efforts.

Kitchen has been asked to condense our food times & there’s been a lot of backlash about not serving food 24/7. We need help not being the bad-guys of the park.

Meeting Procedures

Lorin: Concern that people are missing info by coming late. Shen talked about lateness rules, and we should put them into place.

Pete: People have other things that need to get done. If that’s the way you want to run it, I’m never going to speak & I’m going to stop participating.

Need to put meeting times on a board.

Announcement: organization group has been facilitating this meeting, but it’s not exclusive; please come to us, come to any of us, anyone who wants to facilitate or co-facilitate.

Receive greetings and embraces of solidarity from Movement for Justice in El Barrio, The Other Campaign New York:

We hope this message finds you well and in high spirits (or, as we like to say, conmuchas ganas de luchar) to continue mounting an insurmountable struggle for justice, dignity, and democracy!

We are an immigrant- and people of color-led, grassroots community organization that fights for dignity and against neoliberal displacement from East Harlem to Chiapas and beyond. For seven years, we have gone building-to-building in our neighborhood to build a 700-member-strong, local movement for dignity that has taken on and defeated multi-national corporations and corrupt politicians. We are committed to the principles of autonomy and self-determination, and practice participatory democracy and consensus decision-making on a community-wide scale. As part of the Zapatista-initiated The Other Campaign, we fight for the liberation of all marginalized groups, such as women, lesbians, gays, transgender people, immigrants, people of color, indigenous peoples, and all the poor of the world—from below and to the left.

During the past month, we have visited and participated at Liberty Plaza many times. In doing so, we have added our grain of sand to and been strengthened by this space that continues to grow and develop with and across all the beautiful differences that make us one.

We wish we could maintain a more constant, physical presence at this space, but the real circumstances of our lives make that impossible: That is, as low-income immigrants and people of color who on a daily basis must juggle the demands of working over 60 hours a week, raising our children, and fighting a day-to-day local struggle, the truth is we simply cannot.

Regrettably, in this way and others, the false gulf between us is kept open. For us, and perhaps many other marginalized groups seeking to build at Liberty Plaza, this problem is not just a question of accommodation, but rather of commitment and strategy to sincerely fight against a common enemy that feeds off our division.

In the spirit of shared struggle, we want to find creative and productive ways to overcome these circumstances and combine our forces. Towards this end, we are requesting to be put on the agenda to make a proposal at this Thursday’s General Assembly meeting. We are inviting all the good-hearted people of Occupy Wall St. to our corner of the world for a dialogue we are holding next Monday, November 7th at 7 p.m., at the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center in East Harlem. Several OWS working groups have already publicly endorsed this event, which is called “Dignity Is an Echo in the Heartbeat of the People,” and have also agreed to both attend and promote it. Our intention in attending this Thursday night, specifically, is to propose the same before the GA. We hope the General Assembly will do so as well and make the historic step in bridging the false gap between our communities.

Principles of Solidarity Consolidation Working Group: We are synthesizing and consolidating the Principles of Solidarity of the Wall Street Occupation. These principles were drafted in the General Assembly break out groups during the first days and weeks of the occupation. There have been three drafts of this document thus far; each consolidated draft was returned to the General Assembly and again edited by GA break out groups. The last draft (#3) passed with consensus on September 23. It, along with the Declaration, are the only documents with GA consensus. This (working) draft is online at: nycga.net/resources/principles-of-solidarity. We will be posting it here as well. This working draft, however, is not complete (it passed with consensus as a working draft), we are moving the fourth draft along and we aim for consensus as soon as possible (keeping in mind that Principles of Solidarity is a living document).

The principles document aims to be as inclusive as possible and keeps in mind the realistic parameters, i.,e. principles of solidarity originated here in the square and was drafted by using the direct democratic process of the GA. It is important for this document to remain true to the process in which it was created. To be clear, the Consolidation group does not write the principles of the occupation, we only figure out how to structure a bullet point or sentence that includes everyone’s input about the same principle.

Below are two documents presented for the feedback of the GA. They are of a similar structure, but with slightly different edits. At Thursday’s GA, we will have break-out group discussions to give feedback on these documents.

OCCUPY WALL STREET: PRINCIPLES OF SOLIDARITY (October 21, 2011draft)
We are the 99, the voices of all those world-wide who will no longer accept a democracy governed
by money and
a capitalism ruled by greed. We say enough! and we will be heard. We will occupy, stay, protest
peacefully until we are heard.
We reject profits over people, corruption over transparency, special interests over public goods. We
condemn narcissism
masquerading as liberty and market values that obscure inequality.
We speak with a diversity of voices for those that cannot speak for themselves: children, future
generations,
the marginalized poor and all those excluded "others" who have voices but are not allowed to speak.
We speak on behalf of our abundant and good earth, so brutally exploited by the greedy without
regard for future generations.
We speak for sustainability, for equality, for justice.
We occupy in true democracy's name, and democracy is what we look like: diverse, tolerant, nonviolent and open to all.
But we are also insistent, militant and stubborn in our struggle for a sustainable economy and an
authentic politics.
We exclude only the excluders, those who demonize others and who refuse the discipline of nonviolence, tolerance, facts and reason.
We are the 99 aspiring to become the 100. Because we believe in the power of transformation.
Because we are voices of hope:
of common goods and public purposes -- the voices of common wealth and hence of the
commonwealth.
As voices of an interdependent world, we will not be divided by national frontiers or intolerant
creeds or self-defeating fears.
We are all of those who live in poverty and are imperiled by climate change; who live in fear and are
at risk of losing homes
or jobs or pensions. We are those with no documents and those without health care or schooling;
those robbed of hope and bereft of community.
We are the interdependent world we aspire to create: participatory, non-violent, inclusive, egalitarian
and just.
We occupy Wall Street and Boston and Washington and Seattle, we occupy common spaces
everywhere, in order to recover
a world stolen from us by a corrupt plutocracy that has bought democracy to serve its interests alone.
What it calls market freedom we call theft. What it calls freedom from interference we call
disempowerment of the people.
Our single demand is for those with demands to be heard, for they are -- we are -- the 99 the elites
will not heed.
In an interdependent world, this demand is no more than an expression of our common humanity
and of our defining equality.
We will occupy confidently, we will struggle stubbornly and we will protest non-violently until we
are heard.
Until in place of 99 and 1 there is a true commons, a "100" that speaks with and for us all.

OCCUPY WALL STREET: PRINCIPLES OF SOLIDARITY (October 21, 2011draft)
We are the 99, the voices of all those world-wide who will no longer accept a democracy governed
by money and a system ruled by greed. We say enough!
We reject profits over people, corruption over transparency, special interests over public goods. We
condemn narcissism masquerading as liberty and market values that obscure inequality.
We speak with a diversity of voices for those that cannot speak for themselves: children and the
future generations. We encourage those who are marginalized, living in poverty, and all excluded
"others" to use their voice!
We speak on behalf of our abundant and good earth, so brutally exploited by industry and greed
without regard for future generations. We speak for sustainability and renewable resources.
We occupy in true democracy's name, and democracy is what we look like: direct, diverse,,
participatory, tolerant, non-violent and open to all.
But we are also insistent, strong, and stubborn in our struggle for a sustainable economy and
authentic politics.
We exclude only the excluders, those who demonize others and who refuse the discipline of nonviolence, tolerance, facts and reason.
We are the 99 aspiring to become the 100. Because we believe in the power of transformation.
Because we are voices of hope who are in the midst of actualizing positive social change.
As voices of an interdependent world, we will not be divided by national frontiers or intolerant
creeds or self-defeating fears.
We are in solidarity with all who live in poverty and are imperiled by climate change; who live in
fear and are at risk of losing homes or jobs or pensions. We are in solidarity with those with no
documents and those without health care or schooling; we are in solidarity with those robbed of hope
and bereft of community.
We are the interdependent and equal world we aspire to create: participatory, non-violent, inclusive,
egalitarian and just.
We occupy Wall Street and Boston and Washington and Seattle, we occupy common spaces
everywhere, in order to recover a world stolen from us by a corrupt plutocracy that has bought
democracy to serve its interests alone.
What it calls market freedom we call theft. What it calls opportunity we call disempowerment of the
people.
We will occupy confidently, we will struggle stubbornly, and we will protest non-violently until in
place of 99 and 1 there is a true commons, a "100%" that speaks with and for us all.

Proposed: Coordinators will meet only Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, in order not to create redundancy with Spokes Council.

Concerns about procedures used when the Spokes Council was voted in; specifics were cleared up: facilitation team was hand-picked; stacks were not finished.

Decided: we will keep the 9am meeting through Thursday, in order to see what happens at the first Spokes Council.

Announcement: emergency occupiers meeting @ 2pm in order to address issues of safety, violence, sanitation, etc. at the park. We have rumors that the city is sending destructive people to us. Please share this info with others.

Agenda Item 3: Problems with Last Night’s GA

Seemed

Announcement: Today’s Daily News contained an article claiming that the occupation I being occupied.

PR deals with lots of media outlets, both large and small. We need info all the time. In the last couple weeks, often lead by the NY tabloids, there have been a lot of stories trying to pull at one thread of the community and unravel it. If you’re not prepared to deal with the media, find us at the press table. It’s not just a PR problem; these things also involve substantive problems. Issues the media is talking about:

· Weather – mostly positive

· Halloween – the OWS contingent of the Halloween Parade promises to be really great.

When you read or see stuff, ask yourself, is it more negative or positive, and does it contain our central message.

AP has a security report in the works.

Be careful with accusatory words. We don’t need to escalate things any more than they might already be.

Recommendation: it would be very helpful if PR could offer trainings for info, kitchen, direct action.

Announcement: Someone at food is now offering catering for working groups. Get in touch with them if you have a meeting during mealtimes.

Sustainability – working on pallet system to collect drain-water to specific site & keep everyone off the ground

Library has accepted donation fr. Patti Smith for large canope tent

Town Planning

Community Affairs

Organization

What are we doing about roads
I’m working on a plan in conjunction w/ town planning to put event tents over the entire park, including the trees (???)
Ric: quick point on legality—the tents we have now are not legal; they were never supposed to be there; if it’s something we want to do, we just do it.

Proposed: Coordinators will meet only Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, in order not to create redundancy with Spokes Council.

Concerns about procedures used when the Spokes Council was voted in; specifics were cleared up: facilitation team was hand-picked; stacks were not finished.

Decided: we will keep the 9am meeting through Thursday, in order to see what happens at the first Spokes Council.

Announcement: emergency occupiers meeting @ 2pm in order to address issues of safety, violence, sanitation, etc. at the park. We have rumors that the city is sending destructive people to us. Please share this info with others.

Agenda Item 3: Problems with Last Night’s GA

Seemed

Announcement: Today’s Daily News contained an article claiming that the occupation I being occupied.
PR deals with lots of media outlets, both large and small. We need info all the time. In the last couple weeks, often lead by the NY tabloids, there have been a lot of stories trying to pull at one thread of the community and unravel it. If you’re not prepared to deal with the media, find us at the press table. It’s not just a PR problem; these things also involve substantive problems. Issues the media is talking about:

Weather – mostly positive

Halloween – the OWS contingent of the Halloween Parade promises to be really great.

When you read or see stuff, ask yourself, is it more negative or positive, and does it contain our central message.
AP has a security report in the works.
Be careful with accusatory words. We don’t need to escalate things any more than they might already be.

Recommendation: it would be very helpful if PR could offer trainings for info, kitchen, direct action.

Announcement: Someone at food is now offering catering for working groups. Get in touch with them if you have a meeting during mealtimes.

Shen: The minutes for this meeting are not getting on the website.
Haywood: Send them to me. I can do it.

We in the Internet Working Group feel that establishing and maintaining a strong presence on the web is essential to the future sustainability and success of OccupyWallStreet here at Liberty Plaza. The very nature of the internet places a huge amount of importance on the domain name where a website resides. While we are very happy with our current nycga.net site, this site is at a relatively obscure domain name and is very focused as a collaboration tool and resource for those involved with the movement. We feel strongly that the GA and OccupyWallStreet also need a separate site to function as the outward-facing web presence of the occupation. We have many exciting plans for what such a site can become, some of which are already under development. Until now, though, we had no place to put it online. Most of the high-profile and obvious choices for domains are currently owned and controlled by an affinity group and Adbusters, an outside entity. In both cases, while the sites at these domains have been supporting the movement and raising its profile online, the content and direction of the sites is neither accountable nor transparent to the GA and they are entirely outside of the GA’s control. We wish the affinity group well with their site, and want to avoid any confrontation or disagreement that would jeopardize our solidarity or unity.

We therefore feel that it is time that the GA and the occupation have our very own high-profile domain that can serve as the official online source of GA news, press releases, curated content, and much more. It is with this goal that we have arranged the purchase of the domain OccupyWallStreet.net. After many phone calls and negations with the current owner of the domain, we have settled on a price of $8000. While this may seem like a large number to some, it is actually extremely reasonable considering the traffic that such a domain could generate and the amount of donations income that is sure to follow. In other words, this site will pay for itself in no time.

Currently, the domain has been removed from the market after a member of the Internet Working Group put a 10% deposit down on the domain via personal credit card to assure that it would not be sold to someone else and potentially used against us before this proposal was able to come to the GA tonight. When the sale is complete, the domain will be legally owned by the unincorporated organization known as Occupy Wall Street and will thus belong to not one individual, but all of us together. Its use and future will be administrated by the Internet Working Group and will therefore be directly accountable, transparent, and open to the GA.

We would like to find consensus on this financial proposal to secure for us all the kind of online presence this movement deserves.